Show Australia's latest man inside the Red Bull Racing roadshow an image of his world champion teammate with an accidental, but somewhat ironic saintly glow in a recent photo shoot and the broad smile for which Daniel Ricciardo is renowned is immediate and unrestrained.

''What do you have to do at Red Bull to get a halo like that?'' I ask, and the young West Australian laughs, but doesn't hesitate.

Well, perhaps not everyone. The sport's supremo Bernie Ecclestone for one appears convinced that Sebastian Vettel's winning ways in 2013 were directly responsible for 50 million television viewers tuning out. No surprise then that a slew of new rules - from engines, to aerodynamics to double points at the end of the season - now see Red Bull in the unfamiliar territory of playing catch-up.

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Ricciardo - like the notoriously dogged honey badger he has proudly displayed on his helmet in recent times - doesn't care. Speaking to Fairfax Media between Red Bull team meetings at Bahrain testing last week, it's clear he has set his course and is determined to fight for his own winner's crown.

At Jerez testing in Spain two years ago, Ricciardo arrived for his first full season in a formula one seat, seemingly with the attitude ''how good is this?''

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The question now is: ''How good can he be?''

''Hopefully very,'' he grins again. "I mean, since starting F1 my confidence and belief has grown and increased over time. You get a good result or you have a good battle with someone. I have been fortunate to have some battles in the last few years with some more experienced guys and they definitely build your self-confidence, and now I'm here to definitely be successful and to be at the top.

"I'm sure of that within myself, it's no longer just a vision or a goal, it's definitely what I want now. So I've got the opportunity with a top team, so hopefully, yeah, have a good year.''

Stepping out of Red Bull's development team Toro Rosso and into the seat vacated by Mark Webber is no small move for Ricciardo, particularly given the background of his countryman's often fractious relationship with Vettel.

The new regulations that have brought Red Bull back to the pack - and sees the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg as favourites for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne - means Ricciardo is piloting a different beast to the one that Vettel and Webber drove to the constructors' championship last year.

But don't think for a minute that Ricciardo is pleased that this drop-off at least clearly delineates Webber's Red Bull era from his own, or will make his battles - should they come - against Vettel any less ferocious.

''I think if I stepped into the team as they were last year - obviously the car was extremely good last year as well so I wouldn't have turned it down - but I think more looking at Seb … he was so competitive and successful … maybe this new type of F1 will change it up a bit and maybe make him less dominant.

''I don't know, that's all I can see, but I think in any case I wouldn't have turned down a seat at Red Bull whether it was last year or this year.''

Given the Vettel-Webber history, including last year's infamous passing manoeuvre against team orders in Malaysia, Ricciardo knows the relationship with the bloke in the No.1 car will be analysed in minute detail. And while Vettel retains his winning-cool persona in public, there are hints of a different dynamic between the new teammates. Ricciardo at 24 is younger yet closer in age to the 26-year-old Vettel than Webber. He is also clearly the junior partner, removing the need for friction about the issue.

It has also given Red Bull the freedom to have some fun, the team tweeting an image on St Valentine's day of Vettel on one knee, as if proposing, to a flattered and accepting Ricciardo. The caption: ''share the love.'' Despite hamming it up for such promotions and long hours in recent months working on their cars' design issues, Ricciardo says he doesn't necessarily feel he's discovered anything new about his four-time world champion teammate.

''I think at this stage there's no …'' he stops, weighing his words, ''I know all I need to know about him.

"I haven't really seen much more recently because as a reserve driver even three or four years ago I saw quite a bit. He's very passionate, that's the obvious one, really passionate. He's always spending a lot of time at the track just trying to find those last few little bits and just to give him that edge and he does live and breathe the sport.''

It's a requirement Ricciardo knows only too well. After difficult teenage years when he followed his motor sport dream to Europe, he has spent the past two seasons in a pitch battle with Toro Rosso teammate Jean-Eric Vergne, both knowing they were being judged for the seat at Red Bull.

Ricciardo recalls the tipping points that signalled he was winning the fight.

''I think one of them at least in the first season, well there was a couple, there was the qualifying [sixth] here in Bahrain which even surprised me, it was like 'wow, maybe I can race or at least be as fast as these guys', but then …''

''You got monstered?'' I helpfully suggest.

''Yeah, yeah! But at least the speed confirmed that it was something that I had and I knew if I could overcome the 'whatever' side of it to you know give me the confidence that I could race with them that that was there. Then I had a good race with [Michael] Schumacher in Suzuka, I mean that was just defending him, but just knowing that I was able to hold off a guy who was known for great overtaking in the past, that just built confidence and just, 'this is really what I want to do'.''

There's little doubt Ricciardo is making the most of that commitment. A run through his @DanielRicciardo Twitter feed reveals a life being well lived on the best backpacking circuit in the world. There's Daniel getting hit in the head by the man he beat to the Red Bull seat or hamming it up in a rickshaw. Lots of talk about UFC - the mixed martial arts sport that the 20-somethings can't seem to get enough of, but which leaves boxing purists shaking their head. Then there's Daniel walking the track in Suzuka, or using a lasso and eating steak ribs and sauce in Texas.

But while it seems he can occasionally enjoy a one-off serve of fatty beef, at this level of international sport the sacrifices - not just the experiences - keep mounting. On Australia Day, while the rest of the country was bingeing on snags, sauce and self congratulation, Ricciardo tweeted an image of himself in a hoodie and a sweat. ''Saturday night grind. Life I chose And I freaking love it,'' he wrote to his 171,000+ followers.

The motivation is obviously there, but with formula one on a seemingly endless quest to carry less weight, Ricciardo admits he's had to step up his work-rate in the gym to keep pace with the demands on the modern driver.

''It has been, yeah, it's been tougher,'' he agrees. ''I mean it's not that I had to lose five or 10 kilos, but even just - I'm already not a big kid, I'm quite skinny - so just getting that last little bit off hasn't come with the click of a finger. Over Christmas I've been a bit more disciplined. I couldn't let my hair down as much as I have been able to in previous years.

''Just cutting out basic stuff, cutting out carbohydrates from say 4pm onwards … pre-season [in the gym] was pretty long. The type of training changed, but, for example, if we got a week of no travel then we'll two sessions a day, five-and-a-half days a week, but the training changed so we took out quite a bit of strength stuff and replaced bit with endurance, more fat-burner type of stuff really just to really make sure we don't have any excess fat or muscle.''

Sweating in the gym, working with Vettel, wrestling a skittish new car, navigating the promotional machine and staying true to his Western Australian roots - is it any wonder when asked what skill he thinks could be applied from those admired fighters in the UFC cage to the racetrack, he nominates ''their mental strength''.

''When they are down they keep coming up, when they are down on the mat getting punched or whatever,'' he says.

In this quiet moment off track it is hard to imagine easy-going Daniel Ricciardo slugging it out toe-to-toe in a fist-fight, but equally a stoush on a formula one racetrack is hardly going to win anyone a Nobel Peace Prize.

''I've surprised a lot of people in a lot of things and I'm sure I will [again],'' Ricciardo says, making it clear he has the warrior's instinct.

''It's like even to bounce back quickly, like the start in Bahrain when I qualified sixth here, by turn one I was already in 14th or something, but it was because off the line I didn't get the best start, I saw some cars pass me and it was like, 'shit', you know? 'I'm going back and going back' and I kept going back.

"Now you know if you see a [UFC] fighter when they are down on the mat and they are getting punched they are not worried about the next punch coming but they are thinking about how to get up. So just a few things like that, that's the mindset.''

In the cage fight that is formula one, Ricciardo knows there'll be no wins, podiums or even Vettel-like Red Bull Racing halos without a knock-down, drag-out battle to the finish.

Ring the bell, he's ready.

Andrew Tate is the Sunday Age sports editor. He travelled to Bahrain courtesy of the AGPC.